WRT54G fried - plugged AC into a DC device. D'oh. Any suggestions?

Hi,

I recently bought a Linksys WRT54G v.1.0 from someone on ebay 'as-is'. The

price was right and I was in the mood for a little project. It came with the

old 5v2a power supply and when plugged in, only the 'power' and 'diag'

lights came on. They were blinking. The unit didn't respond to pings.

Figuring it was bricked from a firmware upgrade gone bad, I soldered in a

JTAG header and tried to fix it with the HairyDairyMaid debricker utility. I

backed up CFE and NVRAM, then erased both, then flashed it. Whilst flashing,

both the 'power' and 'diag' lights stopped blinking and stayed lit. But at

about 5% of the way through the CFE flash, it froze. After monkeying with

it, I found that by cycling power to the router when it froze, the flashing

process would continue. I ended up using this method to flash everything,

including the KERNEL, to the point where the HairyDairyMaid software

reported success in all cases. However, upon disconnecting from JTAG and

cycling power again, it was the same old story: blinking 'power' and 'diag'

lights and no ping response.

About this time, I noticed that something was loose in the power supply. It

rattled around inside when shaken. So I tested the power supply w/ a

multimeter which reported that it still did put out 5v.

Some research indicated that these units can handle more voltage than what

they're rated for. I noticed that the power adapter for my DSL modem was

12v. It fit into the receptacle on the WRT54G, so I plugged it in and was

greeted with a POP sound. I unplugged it immediately. There was a burnt

circuitry smell, but no smoke and no visible damage to the PCB or any chips

- even under magnification.

Well, upon closer inspection of the power adapter, I noticed it's output is

12v AC, and the router needs DC. Of course the router doesn't respond to any

power supply now and the lights no longer come on at all. Clearly a

boneheaded move on my part, but what's done is done.

My question: don't most electronic devices like this have some sort of fuse

protection on the board, to protect the circuitry from boneheads like

myself? Does anyone know if there's a varistor or something on the board
that I could just replace to bring it back from the dead?

Thanks,
Slade
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Multicore Processors for 40G Telecom Equipment
    ... Electronic toothbrush. ... and increase the power consumption ... lights are slaves on a network. ... I don't see how the GA chip is any better suited to this than other ...
    (comp.lang.forth)
  • Re: Sudden light brownouts with well pump running
    ... For example 120 volt lights take power from one ... The information would then help identify which 120 volt side ... overhead triplex feeds to different buildings. ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: Simple circuit help...
    ... > one switch and one wire running through a wing in an airplane. ... > have them on all the time that I have the navigation lights on. ... you can build a little circuit that will 'remember' ... after the power comes up, ...
    (sci.electronics.basics)
  • Re: Merry Christmas- your house is on fire!
    ... on - off humming - only some lights are on - HOLY SHIT is this it? ... Wife screams upstairs -THE HOUSE IS ON ... christmas tree between the 42" plasma TV on top of the vcr- the power ... the service wires - pulled'em off the house bracket along with the up- ...
    (alt.machines.cnc)
  • Merry Christmas- your house is on fire!
    ... on - off humming - only some lights are on - HOLY SHIT is this it? ... Wife screams upstairs -THE HOUSE IS ON ... christmas tree between the 42" plasma TV on top of the vcr- the power ... the service wires - pulled'em off the house bracket along with the up- ...
    (alt.machines.cnc)